My 7 days Journey to North Korea :- mind-opening days of my life

I've always been very interested in North Korea because it seemed to be one of the most unique and mysterious countries in the whole world.

Photo credit: Earthnutshell.com

For the past two-and-a-half years I've spent most of my time traveling. The more I traveled the more I wanted to visit North Korea and see it for myself.

Photo credit: Earthnutshell.com

So this year I simply couldn't wait any longer and booked a seven-day tour across the country. After a few months of waiting, I finally got on a flight to Beijing and went to the office of my tour agency for some briefing.

The next morning I woke up at 5 a.m and went to the airport to take a flight that would change me forever. Once we landed in Pyongyang, we were met by two North Korean guides who would accompany us for the whole trip and every single one of our actions had to be approved by them.

On our first day, we went deep underground for a ride on the Pyongyang Metro, which is the deepest subway system in the
world. This was supposed to be a good chance to interact with the local people but everyone seemed to be afraid to even look at us. every time I turn around I'd see people quickly turning their heads away as if they were never looking at me.

After the metro ride, we visited the arc of triumph which was built in 1982 to commemorate Korean independence from Japan. There were quite a lot of people busy with their daily lives some kids were even playing football and
the tourists were allowed to join in.

The next day I took part in the Pyongyang marathon which was begun in 1981. It was only the third year that the marathon has been open to amateur runners. There were over a thousand tourists running ten, twenty-one or even Forty-two kilometers.

A week before my trip to North Korea I fell off from a motorbike and got my arm plastered. for three weeks since I obviously couldn't run full-speed I walked the whole ten kilometers. Quite Surprisingly this was one of the best decisions I ever made because I was able to really see the surroundings and interact with the people watching the marathon.

After the marathon, we're going to see the party foundation Monument which was constructed to commemorate 50 years of Workers Party rule. Later in the evening, we went to the Juche Tower which is the tallest stone tower in the world standing at 150 meters. We were the last people allowed to go in for the day because it was already too late.

Photo : Juche Tower

The next morning the real tour started. We were taken to a kindergarten where the kids performed the dance for us and eventually invited all the tourists to dance along. During our days in Korea, we'd be having our lunches and dinners in different locations. In every single one of them, the waitresses would sing the same songs and invite the tourists to sing and
dance with them. We visit university schools and other learning centers almost every day. a lot of the students had to perform for us and some of them were apparently really well practiced.

Probably the most interesting day was the last day of my trip which was also the birthday of their eternal President Kim II- Sung. In the morning we went to pay our respects and bow for the biggest dear leader statues in all of North Korea. The birthday of Kim Il-sung is a national holiday where people do not have to go to work but every North Korean has to go and show the respect to the leader statues close to their communities.

The seven days I spent in North Korea have been some of the most interesting and mind-opening days in my entire life. to be honest the country looked a lot better than I had imagined though. Obviously, I was only shown what they wanted me to see. my guides were wonderful and friendly people who seemed to truly love their country and especially the Dear Leader's but all the rules and limitations were way too much to handle I remember four days after I left North Korea I couldn't believe I could do whatever I wished even buying brochures or taking a cab seemed like great privileges.

To me freedom is everything. Freedom to choose what to work, what to read, where to go and where to live it was sad to realize that millions of people did not share the same freedom simply because they were born in a different place.

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